{UAH} Kingston youth charged in alleged terrorist bomb plot

Kingston youth charged in alleged terrorist bomb plot

COLIN FREEZE AND VICTORIA GIBSON

KINGSTON, ONT.

PUBLISHED JANUARY 25, 2019UPDATED 11 MINUTES AGO

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Two RCMP officers stand outside a house in Kingston, Ont., where two people were arrested, Jan. 24, 2019.

LARS HAGBERG/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Federal counterterrorism officers in Canada have charged a youth in connection with an alleged terrorist bomb plot in Kingston.

The youth, who cannot be identified by law, was charged with "counselling a person to deliver, place, discharge or detonate an explosive or other lethal device" in a public place, according to an RCMP statement Friday.

He is also charged with "facilitating a terrorist activity."

An adult man was also arrested but has not yet been charged, according to the RCMP's integrated national security enforcement team.

A news conference is to take place later on Friday.

The arrests took place on Thursday by heavily armed police tactical teams who surrounded residential houses in Kingston, a city located three hours east of Toronto. Residents of the city have remarked on aerial surveillance taking place by an RCMP plane weeks before the arrests.

There is no information suggesting the public was in any imminent danger.

The Mounties are thanking a series of law-enforcement partners for helping lay the groundwork for the arrests, including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, local law enforcement and also several Canadian government border and intelligence agencies.

On Thursday Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said that "the government of Canada constantly monitors all potential threats and has robust measures in place to address them. Canadians can be confident that whenever credible information is obtained about a potential threat, the RCMP, CSIS and other police and security agencies take the appropriate steps to ensure the security of this country and the safety of its citizens."

This week's arrests follow weeks of speculation by Kingston residents about the possible use of a potential government surveillance plane hovering around the city. On Friday, the RCMP publicly confirmed that its "air assets" were involved in the investigation.

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Local residents had been growing suspicious of a plane flying overhead in recent weeks. Valerie Gray says she started hearing it around Jan. 10, but couldn't see anything above, likely due to cloud cover. On Jan. 13, the night cleared, and she saw what looked like a silhouette of a plane without any lights on it. "Every five minutes, it was flying over the house," she told The Globe on Friday.

"It never showed up on any flight trackers," she said. "I tried contacting [the Department of National Defence] as well as [Canadian Forces Base] Trenton to see if I could get any answers from them. No luck there at all. They didn't even respond."

Police searched two homes Thursday. One was a small red-brick house close to the city's downtown core. Police continued to hold the home under their control on late Friday morning, with cars blocking off the road. A large white van was parked outside the home.

Vanessa Macfarlane, who lives next door, had met the family several times before. They'd helped her move couches, and brought over food around Christmastime. She said one resident was an adolescent boy.

With a report from The Canadian Press

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